Send A Cow #Planting Hope

Study Trip to Ethiopia - #Planting Hope

Mole Valley Farmers' Ongoing Support for Send a Cow Charity

Mole Valley Farmers is delighted to announce that it will continue its historic support of the farming charity Send a Cow, when a member of staff embarks on a week’s study tour to Ethiopia from 10 – 16 October.

Andy Skarzynski, Head of Retail Marketing and Ecommerce, hopes that his whistle-stop tour will enable him to report in detail to members on the impact of Mole Valley Farmers’ support of Send a Cow’s work in Ethiopia over the past 28 years. Andy, who successfully took the ‘Live Below the Line’ challenge, spending a maximum of 50p a day on food and drink for a week earlier this year, says:

“There is no substitute for seeing something first hand, so I am very grateful to Send a Cow for giving me the opportunity to visit some of their projects. We start at Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa before moving out to Arba Minch and the wilderness areas of Gununo. Many British farmers are having a challenging time at the moment and I am sure they would fully understand the potential value of sustainable agriculture to a developing nation”.

Mole Valley Farmers has a long history of practical support for farmers in Africa. In the 1980s it was involved through founder John James with Bob Geldof’s ground-breaking Band Aid project, and also had strong ties with the inception of Send a Cow. In 1987 David Bragg, a Mole Valley Farmers member from Kelland Barton, Crediton, called a meeting. The group, (Andrew Friend, Chittlehampton; Robert Vere, Morchard Bishop; Gerald Alford, Exeter; Anthony Bush, Bristol; Gerald Addicott, Bath and Kenneth Darch, Taunton) shared their outrage at EU milk quotas, which were forcing them to slaughter healthy dairy cows. One farmer knew from experience that keeping livestock in Africa was tough – but possible. And Send a Cow was born.

Today the charity supports over 20,000 households (over 120,000 people) a year across seven countries in sub Saharan Africa; Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Lesotho. Since 1988, Send a Cow has transformed the lives of over one million people in Africa.

Mole Valley Farmers will be supporting Send a Cow’s “Planting Hope” campaign during November by hosting four specially constructed keyhole Gardens at its Yeovil, Cullompton, Holsworthy and South Molton stores. The gardens will be built by local primary school children, in conjunction with a Send a Cow specialist. They will remain in-store for a month, before being relocated to the schools for on-going use.

The Department for International Development (DfID) are also supporting Send a Cow’s Planting Hope Appeal, which means for every pound Mole Valley Farmers raise towards the appeal between 1st October and 31st December 2015, the UK government will double it!